


Shadow Lance

by Okeldydokeldy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BAMF Lance, Coran Coran The Gorgeous Man, F/M, Lance with powers, M/M, Shallura if you squint, Sharpshooter Lance, Team Training, klance, lance has powers, long lost king lance, platonic Pidgance, platonic hance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-04-14 07:25:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14131065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okeldydokeldy/pseuds/Okeldydokeldy
Summary: Lance is the long lost king of a planet that Voltron saves from the galra. Boom clap lots of self discovery for lancey lance and all that jazz. First chapter is just the team doing trust exercises and all that so there's a bit of a build up to it. Don't mind this awful summary but hope you like it!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys hope you enjoy this and that it's not too confusing! Do you want me to continue this? Also please tell me if it's written weirdly or if there's any mistakes or anything and I'll try fix that! Enjoy!

"Alright gang gather around!" Shiro's voice echoes around the training room walls as the paladins walk up to Shiro, Allura and Coran who are standing in the middle of the training room. Lance feels the cool presence of Blue in his mind and smiles. He briefly glances at Keith as he takes a drink of water before mentally scolding himself. 'Concentrate on training Lance....' Lance's thoughts trail off as he feels a light blush on his cheeks and once again scolds himself internally. He tunes back in to hear Shiro and Allura explain that they'll be doing something a little different today. 

 

"Yesterday was a tough battle but you all handled it well." Allura states as she looks around at each of the paladins. Lance feels Blue praising him on making the final shot and he smiles to himself. He sends Blue an image of him giving a thumbs up back to her and he can feel her chuckle at him. 

"Because of how many battles we've been fighting as well as the intensive training, we will be doing something a bit different today" Shiro adds. 

"Trust falls!" Coran shouts excitedly as Lance whoops and high fives Hunk. "Hunk and I are pros at this already ladies and gentlemen." Lance boasts as he wiggles his eyebrows at Hunk. "Oh yeah let the masters show you how it's done." Hunk adds as he opens his arms waiting for Lance to fall. Lance, ever the performer, spins in a pirouette on one leg with his arms above his head before falling back. Pidge aka the little gremlin chose that exact moment to dart around behind Hunk and tickle him making him squeal and jump away causing Lance to fall on the ground. "Ow...Pidge!! Hunk!! How could you do this to meee" he groans from the floor. "Sorry Lance, it was Pidge's fault!" Hunk tries to apologise to his besterino Lance as Pidge and Keith are rolling around in laughter while Shiro aka Space dad is standing with his head in his hands looking very done with his team. Blue laughs at her cubs antics and she sends him an image of his shocked face when he fell. Lance had to admit, it was kinda funny. 

 

"Righto then, I'm not sure that's how Shiro explained it to me but I'm afraid I don't really see the point of falling onto the ground?" Coran questions while Pidge is still cackling away to herself and Lance just groans, still on the ground. "No Coran, Hunk was supposed to catch Lance but he didn't." Keith explains. "Ah, ok then."

 

"Ok team let's get on with this." Allura says. "Pidge will partner will Keith, Lance with Shiro and Hunk with Coran and I. We will swap around after we've done it a few times." There are murmurs of agreement from around the room. Lance jumps up from the ground suddenly making Hunk jump. "Alright it's razzle dazzle time!" Everyone chuckles at his behaviour, 'He could make the world laugh...' thinks Keith. 

 

After all of them have done a few trust falls with everyone, they decide to kick it up a notch. Coran presses a few buttons on a control thingy and a huge climbing wall appears on one of the training room walls. It looks like a rock climbing wall but more rocky and mountainous. Lance can see Keith and Shiro eying it up for training and he laughs to himself. Pidge and Hunk are discussing Coran's controller thingy and wondering how they have never seen it before.

 

"The old paladins used this for training purposes and so will you but for now we will do a trust fall off of it." Allura explains. "One person will stand about halfway up the wall and will have to jump onto a trampoline net thingy that the others will hold."

"Uh... are you sure this is safe?" Hunk asks. "Relax paladins this is perfectly safe'" Coran reassures everyone. "Worst case scenario is that you miss the net and break a leg or two! Best case scenario is that you land on the net and survive! Really there should be no real danger, young grasshoppers like you should be well able to survive a small tumble like this." 

"If you say so Coran..."

"So who wants to go first?"

Lance looks around and sees that Hunk has suddenly found the floor oh so interesting! And Pidge doesn't look too happy about going first so he decides that he'll step up and go for it before Keith can go first. "Well if no one is volunteering, I'll go!" Lance says. He has always liked heights and even went bungee jumping when he was younger! There's nothing like the adrenaline rush he gets when he's hurtling through the air.

"Righto my boy! Up you go now before you chicken out!" 

Hunk wishes him luck on the way down and Lance begins his climb up. He looks down at the others and sees that Pidge looks like she can't wait to see him fall but also she's worried about him and Keith surprisingly looks a bit worried, Lance wonders, maybe he doesn't like heights?  ~~Definitely not worried about Lance or anything hahaha.~~

Lance looks down when he reaches the halfway mark and sees that it's actually not that high up at all. Haha why were they all worrying then if it's not even high up? Shiro tells him to jump whenever he's ready and to aim for the trampoline net thingy. Hard to miss it really when it's a bright blue colour. Blue tells him to stop daydreaming and jump already before he grows old. Haha very funny Blue. Lance takes a deep breath and jumps. 

 

Lance's eyes widen when he's in midair because it's like the world changes to black and white with red hues in different places. Cracks appear in the walls and floor and the world flickers in and out of focus. Lance thinks he can see a shadow on the wall but the world flickers back to normal after only a second or two. He lands with a thump on the net. He must have imagined it right? It only lasted a second anyway so was probably just from jumping off the wall, he thinks to himself.

Suddenly he realises that he's just been sitting in a daze on the net staring at the wall where the shadow was. "Are you alright Lance?" Keith asks him Uh yeah I'm good! Just a bit surprised that's all." He responds. The others groan and ask him what it's like. "Gowan and do it yourself, it's not that high up!" He responds with a smile. 

 

"Good job, Lance" Shiro says to him and Lance inflates at the praise from his leader. "Thanks Shiro!" He replies. Keith is next to jump and does so without hesitation. Next is Shiro, Pidge, Allura and finally Hunk after lots of debate about it. Coran decides to sit this one out claiming that 'he's not a young, frisky grasshopper anymore.'

 

After everyone has jumped, they regroup and decide to rest and relax for the rest of the day. Coran puts away the wall so that Keith can't go and train some more, the latter huffing and claiming that he'll climb it one day. Hunk goes off to bake dinner for everyone and Pidge goes to examine Coran's controller thingy with Coran following answering her questions, Allura goes to check on the castle and Shiro follows absentmindedly leaving Lance and Keith alone together. Keith glances at him a few times before speaking. 

 

"Hey are you sure you're ok?" Keith asks. "You looked like you saw a ghost or something earlier."

Lance considers his question and feels a warm sensation in his heart because Keith was worried about him! So he does care. 

"Yeah mullet I'm alright, just surprised that you asked if I'm being honest." He replies. 

"Hey I care! I care about you, I mean we care about you loser"

"Haha only messing with you, don't get your mullet in a twist" 

Keith huffs in reply, leaving the room. Lance laughs to himself about how easily wound up Keith gets.

Lance is left alone to wonder about that weird thing that happened with the shadow but decides that he just imagined it and shrugs. He decides to go get a shower and then to taste test Hunk's food. Maybe he'll stop by Blue's hangar on the way. He feels her purr in response. 


	2. Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance wakes up from a nightmare and we learn more about the shadow world and the planet. The paladins do some team training.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2!! I didn't think that people would actually read this so thank you so much! Hopefully you like this chapter as much as the last one :) Also please let me know if there's any mistakes and I'll try fix them.

The first thing that Lance heard was a repetitive knocking on his door. Letting out a groan, he covered his ears with his pillow. "Five more minutes...." he pleaded but the knocking got louder. "Ok fine, I'm up now you can stop the knocking now!" Why was someone at his door so early in the morning and why are they knocking so creepily?..... thought Lance as he opens his eyes and wearily stands up out of bed. 

"Wait a minute..." Lance says to himself as he looks at his surroundings. His room was in black and white with grey and red tones in places. Cracks were in his walls and if he looked closely he could see dust like particles falling from the ceiling. What's going on? It's too early for this... Lance thinks as he rubs his eyes. Suddenly he realises with a sickening jolt that the world looks the same way it did when he jumped off of the climbing wall in training. Oddly, one half of him was screaming at him to get out of this place while the other half felt at peace in this place. 

"Ok ok I'm going!" He shouts to his door as he realises that the knocking is still there. He walks over - no, he feels like he  _glides_ over to the door and slowly opens it, cautious of the cracks and 'dust bombs' in the door. The first thing he sees is... himself? No that can't be right, what is going on? Lance wonders as he looks himself up and down. On closer inspection he sees that they are not completely identical and that the Lance standing outside his door has crimson eyes and he looks kinda staticky? It's like he keeps drifting in and out of focus and disappearing for less than a second before reappearing again. Lance wonders if he would be able to touch him because he looks almost shadowlike but decides that he'd rather not find out. 

"Lance......Lance...I've found you..." Other Lance speaks in a taunting manner as he tilts his head at Real Lance. It feels like he's staring into Lance's very own soul. Slowly Other Lance reaches out to touch his chest. Real Lance backs away but trips over something and falls back with a shout. 

Suddenly Lance wakes with a jolt and realises that he shouted out loud. He's panting and is drenched with sweat. His bed sheets are scattered around the bed. Quickly, he runs to his bathroom and looks in the mirror. Ocean blue eyes stare back at him as he realises that it was a dream. No, not a dream but a nightmare. He leans back against the wall and tries to calm his racing heart. It all felt so real. He can feel Blue in his mind sending him a question mark and a confused face. He assures her that he's fine and that it was just a nightmare. It's alright, his room is back to normal and there's no creepy other Lance at his door. 

Lance was confused, he'd had nightmares before but they had never felt that real, that _intense_. What was with that shadow world thingy and the other, darker Lance? And the thing he said, 'I've found you?' What's that supposed to mean? He looked at his alarm clock and saw that it was 7:03am. Almost time to get up. Welp, he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep again so he decided to take a hot shower to calm down and think about it. 

Undressing quickly, he jumped into the shower and stood under the hot, steamy water. Ok Lance, he thought to himself. I'll deal with this later but right now I have to get ready for breakfast and then training with the team.  Fake it 'till ya make it.. he thought to himself. What could go wrong? 

 

\----------------

 

After Lance had his shower and was dressed in his usual attire, he walked into the room that they'd dubbed 'the chill room' that was really just a kitchen/lounge but the name was nice, Lance thought. Surprisingly he was the second person there, beaten only by Allura. "Oh Lance, it's nice to see that you're taking this seriously and that you're early" she exclaims as Lance grabs a bowl of food goo for breakfast. "Are you alright Lance? you look a bit tired." She asks. "Of course princess, who wouldn't be alright if they're beside a woman as beautiful as you?" Lance replies while Allura scowls but he can see that she wants to laugh. "Just didn't sleep well, that's all."

"Well don't expect me to go easy on you in training Lance, We need to keep training to stay on top of Lotor." Allura replies. Lance hums in agreement. 

Coran, Shiro and Keith arrive next and are talking about using the climbing wall for training later on. Typical Keith and Shiro, thinks Lance. Hunk walks in and high fives Lance when he sees him. "Hey bro ready for another day of saving the universe?" "You bet Hunk, never been readier." Lance replies giving him a mock salute. Pidge comes in last, typing on their laptop before saying hi to everyone and then going back to their laptop. 

"Listen up paladins, I have a surprise for you." Allura starts, getting everyone's attention with the word 'surprise'. "The planet Gnara that you saved a few days ago has sent us some of their finest foods and spices to enjoy as a thank you. Their leader wanted to thank you in person but was unable to do so, so this is their way of being grateful. Coran has tested the foods and they are safe for you humans to eat so enjoy!" 

The paladins whoop in delight at finally getting some food other than food goo! Hunk immediately goes into Chef mode thinking about all the food he can make while Pidge, Lance and Keith fantasise about earth food. Allura,  Shiro and Coran laugh at their instant reaction. "We'll be going back to Gnara after training today so suit up and get ready for training!" Coran announces. Excited murmurs echo around the room as they clear up their plates and go get changed. 

Gnara was actually pronounced 'Nara' (Hunk made the mistake of saying 'gara' and was told the whole history of the planet by Coran) and was quite a mountainous, rocky planet with pretty lakes and rivers. Well that was until you got to the city, where it was completely flat land with lots of houses and shops. The people were called Gnarans and were humanoid looking except each gnaran had a different colour skin. Some were red or blue and others could be neon green or something like that. But no gnaran had the same shade of colour, they were all unique and that's what Lance loved about the planet. The team never actually met the proper leader of the planet but they did speak to an appointed substitute leader. Because of this, much about the planet was unknown and so was the identity of the planets leader. Lance found this odd but didn't want to seem rude by questioning it so he went along with it none the less.

After the paladins had gotten changed into their armour and had gone through their training schedule for today, they started their warm ups and did some stretches. Then they started on level 10 of the gladiator programme. About 20 robots dropped down from the ceiling and they leaped into action. Keith slashed them with his knife while Pidge tased the ones that slipped behind Keith with her bayard. Shiro was fighting with three of them at the same time but they soon deactivated when Lance shot them down. Shiro flashed a quick smile at Lance and continued fighting. Hunk smashed into them as well as providing cover for the rest of the paladins. 

Lance sat a bit away from the others and gave cover for the others. More gladiators drop from the ceiling to replace the ones that fell. Lance saw two of them sneak around behind Pidge and Keith and saw his chance. He felt Blue purr in agreement at the be formed in his mind. 

He had been getting sword lessons from Keith ever since his bayard changed form and he was improving quite quickly. The team had yet to see him fight properly with his sword so he figured why not put on a little show to surprise them.

He darts around behind the gladiators and wills his sniper rifle to change to his Altean broadsword. Feeling the familiar heat in his hands as it changes form, he smirks and runs forward slashing up at one of the gladiators and then slashes down at another move, all in one fluid movement. He hears another gladiator try to creep up behind him so spins around and ducks, just missing the gladiators staff from smacking into his head. He jumps up again and goes to strike the gladiator but is stopped when the gladiators staff and his sword meet in mid air causing them both to stop. Lance thinks, he can either duck and strike low or feint to the left and then hit right. Which is the gladiator going for? He has to react soon before the gladiator does so he goes with his gut feeling. He chooses the latter option and jumps to the left, pretending to stab his sword but then swiftly jumps away to the right and brings his sword around so that the gladiator is impaled with the sword. He can still sense that another one is coming up behind him so he jumps away and puts his leg out, making the robot trip up. A simple move really but it was useful. He stabs the robot while its down and looks around for more, trying to catch his breath. 

Lance realises that everyone else is finished fighting and that they saw him fighting the gladiator with his sword. They look shook but also impressed. He decides to break the silence by taking a bow and saying "so what do you think?"

"Nice job Lance!" Hunk exclaims going to high five him. "That was awesome! You were all like wapaw and then kaboom and then smash! You could rival Keith with those skills!"

"Yeah Lance good job! I'm impressed." Pidge adds. 

"Well done Lance, you've really been improving lately." Shiro praises with the others agreeing. 

Keith who is blushing finally speaks, "Yeah Lance that was pretty impressive, I don't remember teaching you that feinting move but well done." Lance chuckles and says "Haha mullet, jealous of my skills? But thanks for teaching me." Pidge and Hunk share a knowing look and then look back at Lance and Keith. Blue praises him in his mind and Lance feels proud of himself for fighting well. Lance feels himself blush slightly at everyone's praise but even more so when Keith praises him. 

"Good job everyone, Lance especially! We will finish up now and get ready to go down to Gnara so cool down with some stretches and meet in the chill room in an hour." Allura dismisses the paladins and leaves to get ready. Coran goes up to Lance before he leaves and compliments him on his fighting. "Well done my boy, you reminded me of Alfor fighting with that broad sword. Keep up the good work." Lance wasn't really sure how to respond to that so he just thanked him and gave him a quick hug before leaving to get ready. 

Phew, halfway through the day and no more shadow world, I got this, Lance thinks to himself as he gets ready. Now he only has to get through the rest of the day, can't be too hard right? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: ok I'll write another small chapter to set things up for the plot.  
> Also me: writes a longish chapter about Lance and his sword training because why not ;)  
> Do you guys like longer chapters or short ones? Comments are welcomed! I'll try to update as regularly as I can as I'm on holidays from school at the moment so stay tuned!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is!! Finally another chapter, if you've been wondering where I have been then you can check out the previous chapter/authors note where I explain it all. Enjoy this chapter anyways!

After Lance had gotten changed out of his armour, he decided that since he still had an hour until they had to meet in the chill room that he'd go and visit Blue. He walked to her hangar and heard Blue purr in greeting to him. "Hey girl, nice to see you too." He walked up the ramp and sat down in his pilots chair with his legs resting in front of him on the controls. Lance yawned as he realised that he was actually quite tired. "On second thoughts Blue, I might go for a quick nap if that's alright with you, I didn't get a great sleep last night." Suddenly his chair leant back into a horizontal position and the lights dimmed down low. Lance decided to take that as a 'yes, go to sleep' and felt Blue reassuring him that she'd wake him up when it was time to meet the others. He soon settled into an easy sleep with Blue's comforting presence in the back of his mind. 

Out of all the ways that Blue could have woken him up, suddenly roaring out loud at him was not how Lance had expected her to. Blue leapt up into a standing position and let out a loud roar followed by a deep growl that echoed around the empty hangar. Her eyes glowed as she stood in a position ready to pounce. Lance woke up and wondered why she was acting like this. 'What's wrong Blue? Did something happen with the castle?' He asked her. He tried to sit up but realised that he wasn't lying down in his chair anymore. He was floating in the air.

'Why am I floating in the air?...' he thought to himself. 'Maybe the castle's gravity is turned off or something... he wondered noticing that Blue had calmed down and was asking if he was alright. He reassured her that he was fine.

Lance still hadn't moved in the air yet and he had a feeling that the castles gravity was working fine. Welp no point panicking... Lance thought.  If he was going to be stuck floating in the air then he might as well make the most of it. Idly he wondered if he could move around and decided to test it out. He thought about any shows he'd watched about superheroes and wondered what they did to do all that cool flying stuff. "Hmm.....It's now or never!" He shouted out dramatically as he did a superman pose but to no surprise nothing happened. Alright then time to get serious... he thought as he closed his eyes and concentrated on what he wanted to do.

Suddenly his body went on autopilot while his mind tried to catch up. Somehow it felt like he knew what to do without thinking about it and it was like he could feel different strings in the air around him. They were invisible of course but he could sense everything around him. His body knew what to do but his mind didn't. His arms stretched out in front of him and he pulled on the invisible strings making himself move forward. I wonder if I could..... Lance's thought trailed off as he willed his helmet to move from his chair over to him. It moved slowly at first but then sped up and whacked into him. 'Ow...' he thought followed by 'This is pretty cool!' as he realised what he had just done. Blue had gone silent as if she was trying to figure something out but Lance didn't know what.

"Lance are you in there?" Coran's voice called out and suddenly Lance's concentration was lost and he and his helmet fell to the floor. "Ow...." he groaned for the second time while he rubbed his head and got up from the floor. "Yep I'm here alright, is it time to meet up already?"

"No Lance there's still a while left but we're here because your lion appears to be distressed? We could hear her roar from light years away! Is everything alright?" Coran shouted up to Lance. 'We?' Lance thought as he pulled up video footage of the hangar from Blue's controls. The whole team was standing in the hangar and Keith looked ready to fight off some nonexistent intruder. Internally he wondered if he should tell the team what happened but he decided not to. He didn't know why exactly but he just had a feeling. They probably wouldn't believe him anyway so it was better that they didn't worry about it.

"Uhhhh.... Yeah! Uh huh we're all good here, we were just uhhhh... gossiping! Yeah! I guess Blue just couldn't handle the juicy gossip I told her!" Lance lied, saying the first thing that came to mind. Probably not the best excuse but too late now. Walking down the ramp to exit Blue, Lance looked at his team as they sighed in relief. "Are you sure Lance? That was quite an impressive roar" Allura questioned. "Yup! 110% positive. Blue was just showing off." Lance replied to which Allura breathed a sigh of relief. "Well since we're all gathered here, we might as well start preparing to land on Gnara. We'll brief everyone quickly on the bridge." Shiro said. 

Once everyone was on the bridge, Allura, Coran and Shiro talked to the remaining paladins about the arrangements. They were going to dine with the people of Gnara to hopefully secure an alliance between them and as a thank you to the paladins for defending their planet. Lance enjoyed meeting new people so he was looking forward to it. Keith on the other hand was not. He wasn't good at talking to people, what if he messed it up? 

"Hey..." Lance whispered to him. "You ok?" He asked. "Huh?" Keith responded.

"You looked a little worried."

"Oh. Thanks Lance, I guess I'm a little worried about this dinner party thing. I'm not exactly a great 'people person'." Keith confessed.

"Don't worry bro, you can stay with me if you want. And if you're uncomfortable just say something like 'purple pineapples on a turtle' or something." Lance reassured him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Alright, thank you Lance." Keith whispered back to him, looking into his blue eyes as he thanked him. 

Soon everyone was dressed in their diplomatic outfits or their 'fancy-pants clothes' as Pidge had dubbed them. Lance was wearing blue/navy suit with a white shirt. The suit itself was a baby blue colour with navy piping on the suit jacket as well as an intricate design that looked like an ocean which was done in navy thread on the back. To top it all off he was wearing navy shoes. Keith thought that Lance looked amazing. The others were wearing similar style clothes in their paladin colours. Lance wasn't sure if he'd survive the night with Keith wearing that dark red suit with flames on the back. Soon they were all ready to leave for Gnara. They decided that taking two of the lions would be enough so four of them would go in the yellow lion as it was bigger and the other three would go in the blue lion.

 

 

A few minutes later they had arrived on Gnara and were shown to a room where they could relax until they were called in for the feast. Lance felt at ease on the planet and decided to explore the room they were in. It was about the same size as the castle's training room so it was fairly big. There were massive sofas in the middle of the room and Shiro and Hunk were currently sitting on them. Pidge was on a fancy rocking chair thingy that looked a bit unstable but that wasn't stopping Pidge. Keith was also looking around the room while Coran and Allura were fiddling with a translator for the Gnarans. 

 

As Lance looked around the room he noticed that the ceiling was a dark blue navy colour and was full of stars, like the night sky. "Woah..." Lance said breathlessly as he stared up at the stars. It reminded him of home and the earth's sky. As he took in the rest of the room again he noticed something sticking out in the corner of the room, mostly hidden from view. He walked over to inspect it and saw that it was covered by an old sheet. It looked like a big statue but Lance wasn't sure. He lifted the sheet up to see what was under and then lifted the whole sheet off of it. 

 

It was a sculpture. But not any old boring sculpture. It was an ocean wave. Overall it was pure black with silver and gold swirls and designs carved into it. The sculpture was a bit bigger than Lance and it was so realistic that it looked like it could have been a real wave. Lance was in awe. It reminded him so much of the earths ocean that he even felt a bit homesick. None of the others had noticed the sculpture yet so Lance took more time to admire it. 

 

He reached out to touch it but suddenly drew back as the designs on it started glowing a turquoise blue at the place where he touched it. The glowing stopped as he drew his hand back however and the designs went back to gold and silver. 'Huh..' thought Lance as tilted his head in confusion. 'That's weird, maybe it glows when someone touches it?' He could feel Blue's curious thoughts in his mind as she tried to figure it out too. 

 

"Lance what are you doing?" Keith asks from behind him. 

"Ahhh! Keith! Don't creep up on me man!" Lance jumped, not realising that Keith was there. 

"I wasn't creeping up on you Lance but anyway what's this sculpture thingy?"

"Oh I'm not sure but it reminds me of earth, doesn't it? And I think it glows when someone touches it, look at this!" Lance reached his hand to touch it again and the sculpture started to glow again. Soon the whole sculpture was glowing a soft blue. He took his hand away and it went back to it's original state. "You try it Keith!"

 

Hesitantly Keith reached his hand out but this time nothing happened. He took it away and touched it again. "Nothing's happening? Maybe it ran out of energy or something." Keith wondered outloud to Lance. "Touch it again and see what happens. 

 

Lance reached out more confidently this time and to no ones surprise it started to glow again. "That's awesome!" Exclaimed Lance as he admired the sculpture. 

"What? That doesn't make sense!" Keith said. 

"Finally! Something I can do that the famous Keith can't do!" Lance said happily. 

"Yeah ok fine Lance you win or whatever." Huffed Keith. 

 

Suddenly the double doors opened behind them and their escort for the evening arrived to bring them to dinner. Their escort was called Atlas and he was a purple colour. Lance had been talking to him earlier and he seemed very nice but he was a bit shy around new people. He was there to answer any of the paladins questions and to make sure they don't get lost somewhere on the planet.

 

"Paladins of Voltron I invite you to follow me to the dining hall where I hope you will enjoy a nice evening." Atlas announced. Lance thought the formal speaking was a bit funny and he turned to smile at Keith who was also fighting back a smile. Their evening was just beginning. 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think? I had to end it a bit quickly but I wanted to post this chapter as soon as possible so I hope you'll forgive me for rushing a little bit. Stay tuned for another chapter soon! Also if any of you have read the book 'Ink' then the designs on the front cover are similar to the designs on the sculpture! It's a great book btw lol. Commments and kudos are appreciated:)


	4. Authors note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick explanation as to where I've been for the past while :) thanks for staying with me if you're still here!

Hey everyone! *crawls out from my cave* 

Firstly I'd like to apologise for my lack of updates on this story, I promise there will be an update soon. Things got a bit busy for a while and then I kinda lost my writing flow and I wasn't sure what to write for this anymore but I'm back! I've reclaimed my writing thunder (hopefully) and I'm ready to start a new chapter (it's about time lol). I am going away for a few days but I pinky promise that I will start a new chapter as soon as I'm back. You won't have to wait long! And if you're still waiting for a new chapter after all that time, thank you for sticking around! I can guarantee that it'll be worth the wait. 

So I was thinking of doing an extra long chapter to make up for my disappearance? What do you guys think: regular small updates (maybe like every week) or not so regular extra long updates (like every 3-4 weeks)? Comment below (if you're still here that is) what you would prefer! Also if you have any suggestions for this story then feel free to comment them below! 

Lastly, season 7 was wild! That's all I'm gonna about it lol. Alrighty you'll be hearing from me shortly so stick around! (Pleaseeeeee, Lance will thank you for it..) Kudos and comments are appreciated!


	5. Authors note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and the Voltron paladins dine with the Gnarans. They discover something unusual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! It's been a crazy few weeks! I moved house and then didn't have wifi for 2 weeks and then had a ton of school projects to do so I hope you will forgive me for disappearing off the face of the earth (again lol). But anyways excuses over with now let's get on with the new chapter!

Red.

Red sunsets, red roses, red cherries. All these reminded Lance of Keith. 

Now, Lance watched Keith as he conversed with a yellow Gnaran sitting beside him. He watched the way Keith's violet eyes glanced around the room every now and then as if he was making sure everyone was safe. He watched as Keith gestured with his hands to explain whatever story he was talking about. Whereas other people might have needed ten or twelve words to explain, Keith got by just fine with only half of that. It was like everyone hung on to his every word, not wanting to miss anything he said. Lance watched as Keith barked a laugh at the Gnaran's story. He watched Keith's face as it lit up with a smile. He wanted to take a picture of him in this moment so that he can never forget it. Lance smiled softly as took one last look at Keith and then looked away to check up on the others.

Pidge was in a very detailed discussion about some new type of freeze ray with a purple Gnaran who was in charge of Gnaran technology. Hunk and Coran were debating which of the food dishes had the most flavour (it was the kapps in Lance's opinion; they taste like garlic knots from Earth) and Shiro and Allura were discussing what looked like a very serious conversation with one of Gnara's leaders. However they have still not met the actual leader of the planet which the Paladins were starting to get suspicious about. The evening went successfully in Lance's opinion, he had talked and talked to probably everyone there all evening until finally Lance had snuck away to a quiet table where he could have a quick break to regain his energy  ~~and stare at Keith~~. The night was drawing to a close and soon they would be leaving to go back to the castle. He was looking forward to telling Blue all about the dinner.

Lance looked over at Keith once again but noticed a change straight away. A few minutes ago Keith had looked relaxed and quite content to sit and talk to everyone however now he looked stressed and ready to shut down. At once Lance was on the move walking over to him before he even realised what he was doing.

"Good evening" Lance said in greeting to the yellow Gnaran. "I hope you wouldn't mind if I borrowed Keith here for a moment? I have some important news I'd like to discuss with him." The Gnaran greeted Lance in return. "Of course Blue Paladin, no problem at all." He responded.

Lance steered Keith over to the quiet table he was at earlier and sat him down, taking the seat opposite him. "You ok buddy? Having a 'purple pineapples on a turtle' moment there?" Lance asked him, smiling at their previous conservation. Keith took a deep breath and immediately the tension rolled off him. "Yeah I guess I reached my limit for social interactions... doesn't help that I didn't sleep much at all last night. Thanks Lance." Keith replied. "What was the news you wanted to discuss with me?" He asked.

"Oh yeah there's actually no news, I just said that to get you out of there." Lance replied.

"How did you know I wasn't comfortable?" Keith asked as he put his arms on the table and leaned his head on his hands, giving Lance his full attention.

"You just didn't look yourself. Like you just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep right there on the spot."

"I don't know how you always manage to be so energetic and cheerful Lance. How you are able to talk to anyone in the world. How you're so confident."

Lance looked at Keith then and saw him waiting for an answer. This might usually be the moment where he makes a joke and changes the subject quickly but looking at Keith right now... He wanted to tell him everything. He wanted to talk to him for ever.

"Well..." Lance began. "I wasn't always this confident. When I was first moved to America from Cuba I didn't know much English so I used to be really shy and self conscious so I wouldn't speak much. I guess since I have such a big family it was easy to not be heard much so I came out of my shell more because of that. I do enjoy talking to new people even though I'm still a bit self conscious. Sometimes I still doubt myself and wonder if I'm the right person to be the Blue Paladin. But Blue helps loads. She's great to talk to." Lance explained to Keith. There was silence as Keith thought it over in his mind.

Just then, Coran came over and announced it was time to leave. The paladins stood and said their goodbyes to everyone and began to walk out, not needing Atlas to escort them this time. Lance and Keith fell in line beside each other. Keith pulled Lance a bit further back so no one else could hear them,

"Thanks for sharing that with me Lance. And you're a great paladin, you shouldn't doubt yourself!"

"Thanks Keith... Hey what's that?" Lance said as he walked over to a slightly open door. It looked like someone had been in a hurry and had forgotten to close it properly. 

"Let's have a quick look inside" Lance checked to see if anyone was coming before opening the door wider and walking in. Keith followed him. 

The room was in almost complete darkness, the only light source being a strange lamp thing at the back of the room. On closer inspection, Keith realized that it wasn't a lamp. "Lance come look at this" he shouted over to Lance who was at the other side of the room. They walked closer to the light and saw that it was about half the size of a nomal door and circular. There was swirling lines everywhere in it as if it was a liquid being sloshed around a glass. It was black and grey with a few crimson swirls splashed in here and there. It looked vaguely familiar but Lance didn't know how. 

"A portal." Keith realized. "It's a portal."

"A portal?" Lance replied. "Why is it here? And where does it lead to?" He felt Blue's curiousness in his mind.

"I'm not sure... but I think we should get out of here before someone finds us. I have a feeling we weren't supposed to know about this."

"Good idea. Let's go before the others start looking for us. We can talk about it later."

The boys ran out of the room and back to the castle, thankfully not seeing any Gnarans on the way. They agreed to meet somewhere private to talk about it tomorrow as they were both too tired now. The others had already gone to bed too, likely passed out from exhaustion. 

"Good night Keith." Lance gave Keith a quick smile.

"Night Lance" He replied, smiling at Lance in return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Voila! What did you think? Comments and kudos are appreciated greatly and there will be another chapter heading your way very soon :) (I promise!)

**Author's Note:**

> So what did you think of the first chapter? Comments are appreciated!Things will probably start to pick up in the next chapter so stay tuned! I'll try to update regularly:)


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